


Helping Hands

by RavenpuffLove



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood, Dom Lucius Malfoy, Healer Hermione Granger, Healing, Medical Kink, Medical Procedures, Multi, Severus Snape Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-11-07 16:13:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20820152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenpuffLove/pseuds/RavenpuffLove
Summary: Healer Hermione Granger accepts a request for a home visit from Lucius Malfoy ten years after the war. At the Manor she finds more than she bargained for, including an unforeseen appreciation for her expertise.





	Helping Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to LadyKenz347 for giving it a once over and all her hilarious and supportive comments! 
> 
> No profit just fun. 
> 
> 30\. Healer/Patient

**HERMIONE**

Hermione stood just inside the front gates of Malfoy Manor for a long time after apparating onto the property, repeating the words  _ Lycanthropy Research Endowment  _ quietly to herself. 

When Lucius Malfoy owled the first time, she'd cast an _ Incendio _ on the letter without even looking at it. She'd done it to the next five as well and would have continued if Draco hadn't stopped in to ask her to at least read it. He wasn't on good terms with his father, since the older man's release from Azkaban a few years ago, but he checked in on him occasionally. Evidently, trying to contact Hermione was all he could talk about at their last visit, though he wouldn't say why. 

She wasn't exactly fond of Draco, but he had spent the years since he was pardoned working tirelessly on Muggle relations and they’d since fostered a decent working relationship. It couldn’t hurt to read it, if only to keep the peace with Draco. 

Unfortunately Mr. Malfoy had been very persuasive. 

_ Mistress Granger,  _

_ I imagine you aren’t thrilled to be hearing from me even after all these years.  _

_ Let me begin by telling you that I know my apologies mean nothing compared to the weight of my crimes, and in particular the way my actions have impacted you.  _

_ Yet, I am still sorry that you were petrified in your second year because I let a shard of a soul warp me. I’m sorry that my son emulated my prejudices and exercised that hatred on you. I’m sorry I chased and terrorized you through the ministry and that my son released monsters on you because he was trying to protect his mother and me. I am sorry that you were tortured and maimed in my home. I’m sorry that I ever believed denying the power of witches like yourself could protect my power.  _

_ I have followed your career. Your successes with treating long term cruciatus damage are not only a professional marvel, but have been deeply helpful to myself and all of my loved ones. You are possibly the most skilled healer in the country. You are also a woman with impeccable ethical standards.  _

_ I find myself in desperate need of someone of your particular talents.  _

_ If you are willing to help me I will fully fund the Lycanthropy Research grant you've applied and been denied for the last 3 years in a row. In perpetuity.  _

_ I promise that despite the reparations my family has paid I am good for it. Ten percent of the Malfoy fortune is a fortune in its own right.  _

_ We will have to meet at the Manor. I wish it could be elsewhere but I cannot change this. Please come at your earliest convenience you will be welcome any time day or night.  _

_ Your discretion is expected and will be confirmed with a solemn vow.  _

_ Sincerely,  _

_ Lucius Abraxus Malfoy _

Hermione couldn't turn him down. 

He needed a healer; she couldn't in good conscience ignore that need. Not when he seemed so desperate. 

She couldn't turn down the money either. 

So she trudged up the long straight drive and tried not to shiver every time she heard one of the ghostly white peacocks call, the sound reminiscent of a woman wailing. The setting sun cast the manor and grounds in romantic shades of orange and pink that made everything as unfamiliar as a carnival mirror. Hermione was already half convinced to do a runner when the front door opened before she could even touch it. 

"Hello?" Hermione called into the vast entryway. 

"Good evening, Mistress Granger, I'm so glad you came." Lucius Malfoy greeted her breathlessly after apparating a few feet past the door. " Forgive me for the Apparation I was across the Manor when the wards alerted me to your arrival and I didn't want to keep you waiting." 

"It's fine, Mr. Malfoy. I hope you won't take offense if I ask to get to business immediately." Hermione replied, hoping that he had the sense to get her quickly out of this room and into one she hadn't seen during the war. She was almost certain she could see the door to the dreaded drawing room from where she stood. 

"Not at all. I'm anxious to put you to work." He turned and strode down a hallway to the immediate right. "Follow me please." 

"Why am I here?" Hermione asked after a few moments of silently navigating the twisting halls. 

"I almost forgot," Lucius replied, stopping dead in his tracks and reached out to clasp her hand. "Do you, Hermione Granger, solemnly vow not to reveal any details that might compromise the identity of the patient residing in this house." 

"I do so solemnly swear." 

It wasn't an unbreakable vow, but the magic still stung as it corded around their hands and ensured she would regret if she broke her word. 

"Your patient is Severus Snape," Lucius said, smirking as her jaw dropped. " He’s alive, but obviously not well considering I've sought your services." 

"Professor Snape is alive, and he's here." Hermione replied flatly, too shocked for anything else.

"He hasn't been a professor of anything in many years," Lucius replied, amused at her slip. "But yes." 

"How?" Hermione had seen Severus that night, that he would still be alive defied all sense. 

"Everyone assumed Nagini ate him, but Narcissa brought him here. He managed to shove a bezoar down his gullet before passing out from blood loss. My wife was a gifted natural healer. She brought him back from the brink and had been treating him ever since. I was as surprised as you to come home from Azkaban five years ago and find my dear friend alive and snarky as ever." His smile faded as they walked and talked, a deep sadness etching itself into his features. "Since Narcissa passed away his condition has deteriorated. He concocts and brews but nothing has helped. He has little talent for healing and this is well beyond him. I know you cannot pour your power into him day in and day out as Narcissa did, but you are more than gifted. You are educated. I have to hope that you can provide a more permanent cure." 

"I on the other hand think Lucius has put far too much faith in your abilities, Miss Granger." A familiar voice called from a room to the left. 

**SEVERUS **

Hermione Granger had changed a great deal since the last time Severus had laid eyes on her. Of course he was aware of that, he’d seen her picture in the Daily Prophet countless times since she’d cried over him while he was bleeding out in that godforsaken shack. First her war honors, as always the gossip about her lovelife, then eventually the news of her research breakthroughs and how she was bridging of gaps between muggle and magical medicine. The harried girl he remembered now exuded warmth and calm professionalism. She was almost unrecognizable. 

“It’s Mistress Granger now actually, Master Snape, or Doctor Granger if you prefer since I also have my muggle credentials,” she quipped, pulling herself out of the shock of seeing him laid out in a nightshirt in his sick bed rather quickly and making her way into the room. “Though I’d really rather you both call me Hermione.” 

“Doctor Granger then.” He almost laughed. It was nice to see she wasn’t still desperate for his approval, but he would give her the respect of a title. She’d earned it. 

“Call him Severus, Hermione,” Lucius butted in. Settling into his preferred chair by the window, Lucius looked more relaxed than Severus had seen him in weeks. “ He won’t tell you he hates his surname but he does. Frankly, you can call me whatever you’d like, but don’t make it formal for my sake.” 

Hermione’s eyes met Severus’ from across the room. One eyebrow raised questioningly as she pulled her wand and pen and notebook from her apron pockets. 

“Severus will be fine,” Severus reluctantly replied. “Shall I begin my history?” 

“Yes, keep it relevant for now, just your current symptoms, and history since and directly before they began. We might need to go back further considering your extensive exposure to curses and the likelihood of compound damage but it’s best to start focused.” 

“While I had previous nerve damage from repeated and extended exposure of the  _ Cruciatus _ curse my current symptoms and severity began during recovery from the snakebite I received during the battle of Hogwarts.” Severus listed his symptoms in a bored drawl the same way he would recite the formula for a basic potion. He had practiced it until it meant nothing to him, until he didn’t have to raise occlumency to master the emotions. “I have continual pain of varying degrees throughout my body, escalating across my left side and peaking in a radiating pattern from the site of trauma including the left side of my face and jaw, my neck, my left shoulder, chest and abdomen, the entirety of my left arm, and the upper outside quadrant of my right thigh. I have grand mal seizures regularly and my right limbs are weakened, the instability of this combination leaves my mobility significantly decreased and on bad days completely bedridden. Narcissa Malfoy treated me for nearly ten years after the war. The trauma sites healed beautifully. When it became clear my other symptoms were not dissipating with time Narcissa began to use her natural healing talents on me every morning, suffusing me with a nebulus healing energy. The process never eliminated my symptoms but it lessened them significantly, keeping me mobile enough to safely wander the manor and mostly live independently. Since she passed away six months ago I have been untreated but for potions purchased from a trusted former colleague in Spain, simple analgesics and anticonvulsants that do little to alleviate my symptoms.” 

“Have you ever had proper diagnostic tests?” 

“Lucius and I have performed every spell, in every book we could get our hands on, revealing high levels of blood toxicity despite repeated application of bezoars and targeted antivenoms. They also revealed extensive and continuing nerve damage,” Severus replied, glad he’d considered her questions and scripted his responses as pain spiked in his shoulder and left him feeling vaguely dizzy. “Until Narcissa was no longer here to help me, I’d never considered the symptoms to be enough of a problem to risk bringing in a healer who we would need to bribe or obliviate. I also didn’t believe there was much of a point before recent advances in healing focused on the nervous system gave me hope beyond constant access to a natural healer who can brute force short term nerve regeneration.” 

“Alright, that’s a good starting point.” Hermione summoned a muggle stethoscope and secured it around her neck. “Remove your shirt and we can start the exam.” 

Severus’ heart jumped in his chest and he was glad she hadn’t put the muggle device on him yet lest the rapid thumping affect her diagnosis. He knew healing often required disrobing, but he hadn’t quite considered that he’d have to undress in front of a former student. That she’d be putting her hands on him. He unbuttoned the neck of the nightshirt with a gesture and wandless magic and before he could be embarrassed about the weakness in his arm making him struggle to pull it over his head Lucius was at his side offering an entirely different sort of humiliation. 

“Sorry Doctor Granger,” Lucius said with a wink as he pulled the garment over Severus’s head, his hands skimming over the skin he exposed. “I couldn’t resist a chance to get him out of his clothes.” 

The man was an absolute lech, always had been. It was part of what Severus liked most about Lucius. Most of why they’d kept falling into bed over the years. Severus had never found it easy to indulge himself, while Lucius refused to deny himself any pleasure, and by extension refused to allow Severus to deny himself. As much as Severus enjoyed Lucius’ antics they were harder to handle when another person was involved. It was bad enough when it had been Narcissa, who had been so used to him, and well aware of their involvement. This was a stranger—for all intents and purposes— and a former student. Having his lover feel him up in front of her was making Severus’ mood brittle and his skin clammy. 

Hermione, to her credit, didn’t seem to be letting the other man get to her. 

“I’m always glad to have an assistant, Lucius, but please take a seat, can’t have you exciting my patient right before his exam.” She shot Severus a wicked grin and chafed her hands together before putting the stethoscope and her chilly fingertips to his chest. “Sorry if my hands are cold. I’m just going to listen to your heart and lungs for a moment. We're going to treat this like any checkup, just with some extra tests. I’ll have some questions as we go along.” 

He breathed deeply as she listened first to his front and then to his back, trying to ignore the delicate pressure of her fingers against the lightning burst cruciatus scars on his skin. She kept her hands on him as she moved on to the diagnostic spells, conjuring a map of lights floating across his body that rose and fell as she poked and prodded down his left side. As she worked, she peppered him with questions that kept him constantly off guard, never exactly what he expected. 

“Have you noticed anything that makes your symptoms worse?” She asked as she prodded at the thin, sensitive scarring at his neck until it burned. 

“Restrictive garments or other physical pressure. Caffeine, lack of sleep, but I don’t much restrict myself. Nothing keeps it at bay for long.” 

“When was your last seizure?” Her hands gentled as she tapped and pressed down the left side of his chest and abdomen. It sent his nerves firing, but not in the way he expected. It wasn’t twitching, burning, pain, it was the simple pleasure of touch. Her calloused hands, so unlike the Lucius’s soft ones, brushed lightly against the line of dark hair that trailed down his middle and a shudder ran through him as he felt a stirring in his groin. 

“ Yesterday morning, before breakfast.” Severus shifted his blankets discreetly, hoping to hide his stiffening length from her keen eyes. 

“Are you able to perform sexually?” She had the good grace to remove her hands from his person before she asked, but he felt his face grow hot as he wondered if she’d seen his twitch of arousal even through the thick blanket. 

“I think I’d be the better one to answer that question,” Lucius interjected, eyes meeting Severus’s from across the room. “ He has his bad days, but aside from that and one very ill timed seizure I’ve got no complaints. 

Hermione was scribbling in her notebook, seemingly unphased by Lucius’s crude familiarity. Stopping only to raise her eyebrows at Severus and motion that he should still answer the question himself. 

“Pain occasionally renders me unable to enjoy any of the pleasures of the flesh, including sex, but I have full sensation in my throughout my groin, can maintain an erection and ejaculate. Is that enough detail for you Doctor Granger.” Severus let every ounce of acid he possessed drip into his words. 

“Yes, thank you.” Writing furiously in her notepad, Hermoine occasionally paused to prod at the diagnostic map she’d conjured before she continued. “Well, it looks like you haven’t suffered any of the common heart or lung damage from extended  _ Cruciatus _ which is lucky; it means your body is strong enough for the treatment I think you will need.” 

“I’ve always been a strangely lucky man.” He said, wry humor pulling at the edges of his lips. 

“After seeing you today, I think you’ve got that right,” Hermione agreed. “You should be dead. I really don’t know how you survived the first week afterwards. Narcissa must have nearly depleted her magic to do what’s been done. The venom has mostly been sealed away in your nerve tissue on the left side. The cells are just bloated with it and it’s eating away at them from the inside. No matter how much we regenerate them they will keep deteriorating. As the nerves deteriorate they leach trace amounts of the venom back into your blood. It’s not enough to do major damage, your magic works to fight it off, but it’s enough to cause you to seize and leave you feeling weak. There are spells to remove damaged nerves, they are normally used on small areas to help arrest pain after amputation and other traumatic injury, but we can apply them over a larger area. We can do a bloodletting just after to help clear any remaining traces of venom, after that my nerve regrowth potion should be able to give you uncorrupted nerves.” 

“That’s it. Charmwork, a little blood, and a potion.” Lucius came to stand at the bedside, his arm brushing against Severus’s shoulder, solidarity with no clinging. “ He’ll get better?” 

“Not quite,” she replied with a warm smile. “Nerves are what carry our magic. Narcissa was pumping yours full of her magic to help them heal. I will have to do something similar to wake them up once they’ve grown. It's an old magic, laying on hands. Direct transfer of magic and healing intent into the flesh. So you can tack a massage onto the end of that list.” 

“I want to start tonight.” Severus said firmly, no sense putting it off, it just left more time to worry.

“I can start right now if you like." 

“If we are beginning this now, I want you to stay overnight, Hermione.” Lucius laid his hand on Severus shoulder, trembling so slightly that no one but Severus would notice his nerves. “I know that you hate this place and I don’t blame you for that, but I have no healing talent. If something went wrong… ” 

“I would never leave a patient during such a difficult treatment, Lucius. Everyone thinks I’m on vacation except Draco and Ginny. I can send patronuses to them both to let them know I’m staying over so they don’t send the aurors out looking.” 

“Thank you for that, Hermione.” Lucius said, the nervous tremble still present in his fingers. 

“It is as much for me as you. Harry is a dear, but if he knew I’d found Severus alive and not informed him so he could come here and make him uncomfortable with gratitude I'd never be forgiven.” 

“What’s our first step?” Severus said, trying to return the conversation to the matter at hand. 

“We will remove your nerves first." Hermione’s voice took on the half-kind, half-bored tone of professional explanation. "If they somehow release more toxins into your blood we want that to happen before we do the blood letting. So we will do the vanishment and bloodletting, then administer the nerve regrowth tonic and blood replenishers and let you sleep. Tomorrow we can lay on hands, wake up those new nerves and get the magic flowing. It’s going to be a rough couple of days but after that I think you’ll be feeling much better. ” 

“Not  _ all better _ , just  _ much better _ ," Severus snarked. " I expected more boundless Gryffindor optimism.” 

“ Severus, I’ve been told some fraction of what you suffered during the war and your diagnostic confirmed it.” Hermione replied, eyes serious and staring directly into his. “I am a talented and educated healer, and I am an optimist. There is a lot I can do for you. I am optimistic that I can end your seizures and restore your nerves to working order. But I am not a miracle worker. I cannot make you all better, and frankly I think it would be an insult to try.” 

Severus nodded, setting his mouth firmly. He appreciated her honesty. 

" Let us begin." 

**LUCIUS**

Lucius had rarely been so terrified as he was when Hermione began vanishing Severus's nerves. The incantations were complicated and Lucius found he couldn't follow them at all once she began. Her wand moved in practiced, steady movements through the air, ending each flourish and arc with a tap on Severus's bare skin, leaving runes behind in her wake. The whole right side of his friends body became a patchwork of runes from the neck down, the blanket draped over his lap pulled so far to the side it revealed his hip and barely preserved his modesty. 

"That should target the removal. There might be a little spillover but nothing significant." Hermione said, a sweat breaking out across her brow. "Now's when it will get uncomfortable." 

Lucius summoned his chair to the bedside and gripped Severus's hand, despite the glare his old friend threw at him. Hermione summoned a large copper bowl, levitating it at her side, and began casting once again. The spell took on the familiar rhythm of healing chants, her wand bobbing gently with the sound of her voice. 

It was easy to see when it started to take effect. Severus went stiff as a board, expletives hissed between clenched teeth, as glowing threads began to make their way out of the rune marks on his body. They resemble thoughts ready for the pensieve, except instead of otherworldly glowing silver these threads are almost transparent. Landing in the bowl, they piled in on top of themselves, starting to look not unlike a broken aspic, jellied and disquieting. 

Lucius has always been disgusted by healing. It was good that Narcissa was such a hand at it or he’d have spent half Draco’s childhood at Saint Mungos trying not to disgrace himself by being sick into the nearest bin. The potions stinking with harsh ingredients; wan, sick and injured bodies; the delicate dangerous spell work and malicious looking instruments that must suffice when wands couldn’t. It all turned his stomach. 

Narcissa though, she had been beautiful when she was healing. She would charm her hair back in a long braid down her back; the effort caused little tendrils to slide out, creating a halo around her glistening face that reflected the glow of her magic as she gave it to breathe life back into the broken bodies of her husband and her son and the man they’d made his godfather. A shining beacon of self-sacrificing motherhood. People thought that she’d had such a change of heart that day in the Forbidden Forest, but truly she'd always been willing to risk anything for her family, to give all of herself. It was  _ his _ prejudice that had made her look cold to the rest of the world. 

Lucius turned his eyes to Hermione as her wand moved to hover over the scarred skin at Severus’ neck. He was a wonderful hand holder, but he couldn’t watch. 

He'd Expected to see that same warm glow of care in her that he had always seen in Narcissa when she worked. There was something of it about her in the way her curls sprang free at her temples, in the gentle rounding of her lips as she chanted, in the graceful flicking of her wrist that bobbed her wand. But more than anything she reminded him of Severus over his steaming cauldrons. She was all focus. Her skin was sheened with sweat, her prim healers uniform rolled up at the sleeves and dampening at the collar and chest. A little straight line had appeared between her brows as she knit them together in concentration. 

Hermione wasn’t just giving, she was working, and she was good at it. 

Nothing fazed her. Not Severus’s swearing, not the nauseating bowl of jiggling nerve tissue, not the way blood seemed to seep out his friend’s pores like sweat. She remained unflappable. It was so mesmerizing to watch her as she worked that Lucius felt his face mimic her pleased smile as she stopped chanting and stretched, rolling her neck and shoulders gratefully. 

“Hanging in there, Severus?” She asked, her voice hoarse from overuse. 

“It’s gone.” Severus responded, his jaw still clenched tight, voice holding more wonder than Lucius thought possible from his favorite cynic. “The pain is gone. As soon as you dropped your wand.” 

“Good! That’s what I want to hear—means it worked.” Hermione banished the bowl who-knows-where and stowed her wand in the sheath at her belt. “ I need to do some touch tests and then we will do the bloodletting and get you dosed up so you can get some rest.” 

Lucius watched closely as she poked and prodded at Severus, running her fingers lightly across his skin and asking him questions. He’s not sure if he’s meant to be listening but he isn’t. He knows he isn’t expected to answer and he’d rather be watching. Her movements are as practiced and graceful as the rest of her work has been. Checking to see how complete the nerve removal is, she tests how well her rune work has directed it. It’s interesting, to watch how firmly she digs her fingers without Severus feeling anything. 

When her fingers cross the boundary between denerved skin and still sensitive skin Severus doesn’t just jump at the sudden touch,  _ he comes alive _ . Lucius knows that hitch in his friend’s breath. He knows the tremble in those eyelids and the tightness at those lips. Severus is a subtle man, spying for the better part of twenty years required it, but he can’t fool Lucius, not now. He’s aroused by Hermione’s gentle, professional touches. Her fingers trailed over the bony protrusion of his hip to flip back the blanket and Severus wrenched his hand out of Lucius’ so fast that he almost fell forward onto the edge of the bed as his friend batted the healer’s hand back from his groin and clutched at the blanket over his lap. 

“ Miss Gran— _ Hermione. _ ” Severus stumbles over the new familiarity. “I feel your hand. Please do not move another centimeter. Leave me some dignity.” 

Hermione cackled, her laugh loud and warm, an altogether inelegant kind of sound that Lucius found he liked very much. 

“No need for the dramatics, Severus.” Hermione moved her hand farther down his thigh. “Though you might want to get used to the idea before tomorrow. Unless you’re comfortable with possible impotence for the rest of your life because you didn’t let me make sure the nerves are woken all the way through the midline of your body.” 

“Oh we can’t have that, Severus,” Lucius drawled, using every ounce of Slytherin cunning he still possessed to suppress his laughter. The man was so wound up he was liable to expire from embarrassment and sexual frustration before they ever got to tomorrow. 

“I won’t protest when it’s necessary,” Severus insisted harshly, hand still balling the blanket over his lap, hiding what Lucius was certain was an exceptional erection. “I just don’t see the point in testing the loss so intimately when you are about to regrow them.” 

“Alright, then.” Hermione shrugged, ceasing her examination and summoning another bowl and a scalpel. “Sorry, I’ve never removed so much at once I was just very interested to see the results. We’re ready for the next step. This really would have been better a decade ago.”

“It would have been?” Lucius was suddenly worried that they’d waited too long to try contacting her. 

“More satisfying rather,” she said absently, tilting back Severus’s head and prodding gently on the pale skin at his neck. “There was about a year there when slitting Severus’s throat was one of my favorite fantasies.” 

They both laughed at that until Hermione tapped sharply on Severus’s throat and told him to be quiet. She was something else. Maybe after all this was over Lucius would invite her over for supper, or even to stay for a weekend. Severus needed company besides him and this witch was just the ticket. She was smart, of course, Lucius had been hearing how brilliant she was for the last twenty years, but Hermione was more than that. She was funny and she didn’t pull her punches. Neither of them could stand tip toeing around the elephant in the room. They’d both been abhorrent men for most of their lives, perhaps they still were. Better to laugh about it or even cry about it, than try to awkwardly pretend it never happened. 

Hermione stuck her scalpel into Severus’s throat without any warning, a quick jab and suddenly a stream of blood fountained into the floating bowl. Lucius expected his stomach to drop as Hermione flicked her little knife expertly into a vein at Severus’s elbow, and again into the tender flesh of one thigh, always followed by the shallow floating bowls. But again he was surprised by how the witch’s practiced, efficient presence balanced the coppery smell of blood and the pained noises his friend made after each cut. Mostly what Lucius felt was shocked. It was so much blood. 

“Just a few minutes,” Hermione reached out to pat Lucius on the shoulder. “I promise I won’t let him bleed out.” 

It didn’t take long at all for Severus’s skin to go clammy and his fingers to begin trembling against Lucius’s hands. Hermione had the tiny cuts healed perfectly in seconds and potions tipped down her patient’s throat within moments, laying him back on the bed after another quick set of diagnostic spells. Lucius was surprised to find that Severus was sound asleep before the spell glow had even faded. 

“The potions should keep him resting comfortably for several hours. Where am I sleeping? I need to rest before his next check-in,” Hermione whispered, banishing her tools, leaving the room as clean and austere as when she’d arrived. 

“I’ve had the nearby suite made up just in case,” Lucius answered quickly, walking her a few doors down the hall to the guest suite he’d kept aired out since he first contacted her. "It isn’t the most richly appointed but I didn’t want you to have to wander the manor. I tried to anticipate any needs, there are nightclothes and the bath is fully appointed. Feel free to use anything you find.” 

“Thank you for your hospitality, Lucius.” She said, dropping her healer’s bag just inside the door. “Try not to worry about too much about Severus. Nerve regrowth is painful but he should sleep through most of it and frankly after how much pain he will likely still consider it an improvement. I’ll be out to check on him around three and I will give him another batch of sleeping draught and pain relief.” 

“I have every confidence in your expertise, Hermione. Sleep well.” Lucius said, resisting the temptation to parlay his short departing bow into a kiss on her hand. Probably best not to be  _ too _ familiar, couldn’t have her running off with a job half done. She was here to help Severus and it wouldn’t do for Lucius to risk that just because he was nervous and wanted to distract himself with some good natured lechery. Besides, he’d get a chance to shock her in a few hours. 

Still, he couldn’t help but wonder as he returned to strip and climb under the covers with his lover, how hard it would be to break Hermione’s professional cool, and if she’d blush when he managed it.

**HERMIONE**

Despite the warm hospitality Lucius had offered, Hermione didn’t find it easy to sleep in Malfoy Manor. She was used to sleeping in warm flannel sheets and soft plush blankets. The crisp, cool cotton and heavy comforter in the guest room left her feeling simultaneously smothered and freezing. It kept her just uncomfortable enough that she rested uneasily and her dreams were plagued with the vague scent of fresh blood. She jolted awake almost a half hour before her wand alarm was set to go off, restless and covered in a thin sheen of cold sweat. 

After a few minutes trying to get back to sleep, Hermione decided that it wouldn’t hurt anything to check on Severus a few minutes early. Pain relief potions worked differently on people who’d used them frequently, which she was sure he had in the past, so did the sleeping draught. No use leaving him lying awake and uncomfortable if she was going to be tossing and turning anyway. 

She pulled the silky dressing gown Lucius had left out for her on over the cotton pajamas and tip-toed down the hall, her wand barely lit, hoping she wouldn’t wake anyone who was still asleep. 

Nearer to the room Hermione could see that someone had left the door ajar and a dim light was lit somewhere inside.

Creeping closer, she could see through to the bed. The light was coming from somewhere on the bedside table, behind the bed from her vantage point, and it left the occupants of the bed softly silhouetted. Severus wasn’t alone. Lucius hadn’t just stayed by his lover’s bedside, he’d climbed up into the bed with him. He was pressed flush against Severus’s back, one arm thrown possessively around the other man. His pale hair shown almost gold where the light caught tiny flyaways, creating the effect of a glowing halo flowing from the top of his head to his bare shoulder. 

It was incredibly intimate. No one was meant to see such a moment. Hermione would have turned away to come back after the timer had run its course—after all Severus couldn’t be that uncomfortable if he was cuddled up in bed with Lucius—but the moment she turned to leave, she heard her name among the soft whispers from the bed. She knew she should go back to her room, but she was too curious. Instead she extinguished the light at the tip of her wand and crept closer to the gap in the door. 

“ —,good job today.” She heard clearly, ears focusing in on Lucius’s smooth, even voice. “I hate seeing you in pain, but I liked watching her work on you. She has skillful hands, almost like an artist. You’re a lucky bastard to have had them all over you. Do you think she’d make a house call again if I pretend to have a heart attack?” 

“You’re a dirty old man, Lucius.” Severus replied, his deep baritone rough with sleep. “Stop ogling the woman’s hands—she could be your daughter.” 

“If I’m a dirty old man what does that make you, Professor?” Hermione could almost hear the smirk in Lucius’s voice. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you shifting that blanket so it would stop tenting over your cock. I wasn’t the only one with a wandering mind. What was it that got you hard, Severus? That proper, crisp healer’s uniform she was sporting, apron and all? The way she talks, perhaps? Merlin knows you like a woman with something between her ears. Maybe a little of both, but I think it was those hands. No one could have expected to you to ignore all those probing touches.” 

“Lucius, stop teasing me I’m trying to regenerate nerve tissue,” Severus hissed, his pale hand suddenly visible against the dim light, shoving Lucius’s hand away from his hip. 

“It’s good that you feel anything already, I would think!” Lucius almost purred, his arm snaking back around. “I’m not teasing you, dear. I’m preparing you. If you're embarrassed now, how will you feel tomorrow when she’s running those talented hands all over you and pushing her magic through you? She’s going to have to touch you right here—,” 

Hermione backed away from the door quickly as Severus released a breathy moan. She didn’t know where Lucius had touched him but she knew that she shouldn’t keep listening. A quick tempus back in the guest room revealed that she had another ten minutes to wait before she had to go back to the room to do her check on her patient and redose him with potions. She could only hope that it would long enough for the hot, splotchy, blush to drain away from her face. 

It certainly wasn’t long enough for her to do anything about the throbbing, wet ache between her legs. 

Hermione couldn’t deny that she liked what she’d heard. She’d spent so much time with her hands on bare skin and so little of it was appreciated. Healing was magic, beautiful and complex and difficult. She was an expert at it and she thought that her wand movements were as beautiful and skilled as a master of any branch of magic. But as soon as her hands had to touch a patient, they forgot about her impressive mastery of the subject at hand. She became the awkward intrusion on privacy, the woman with cold hands and bad news. 

She’d definitely never heard another man talk the way that Lucius had. Wizards often praised her small, perky breasts or the wide spread of her hips; if they were particularly poetic they might compliment her eyes. They didn’t pay any attention to her calloused hands with their badly bitten nails and they certainly didn’t care about her professional talent. If anything it had been a hindrance in the dating world. No one seemed to feel like getting involved with a woman who rarely had free evenings, and on more than one occasion a man had tried to insult her by calling her lovemaking clinical, not that she really bought into negative assessments given during arguments. 

Lucius didn’t seem to think any of that was a problem in the slightest. Somehow the beautiful man whose derisive sneer had starred in so many of Hermione’s nightmares as a young girl seemed to not only have come to terms with the selfish nature of his prejudice, but to have developed a very specific appreciation for Hermione’s talent. She aroused him, and apparently she did the same to Severus. 

Fear mixed dangerously with her sudden attraction to Lucius, but she couldn’t feel the same about former Potion’s Master. She wasn’t sure she’d call him a hero—he’d been a cruel bastard and frankly, she wasn’t moved by the sob story about Lily the way Harry was—,but she could appreciate what he’d done for them and the pain he'd endured to see Voldemort vanquished. It didn’t bother her at all that thinking about his dark, piercing eyes on her sent almost painful spasms of desire to her cunt. She had liked the way his skin jumped under her fingertips, and she had, in fact, noticed the erection he’d tried so hard to hide. She’d ignored it because that was the proper thing for a healer to do, but if he was going to let his lover taunt him with the idea of her she certainly shouldn’t feel any guilt in fantasizing about either of them. 

They were wizards with a notorious attraction towards power. Attention from them was more than flattering. It was intoxicating. 

Hermione found her brain creating all sorts of scenarios with the information. The way Severus’s breath might hitch in his throat if she slipped her fingers into his arse and gave him a proper examination; The way Lucius’s bared skin might look, pale and dusted with fine silvery hair; The two men slowly stripping off her uniform to thank her for a job well done; Severus’s fingers as clever and nimble against her clit as they had been demonstrating proper ingredient preparation in his classroom; Lucius’s breath hot on her neck as he whispered filthy things in her ear. Her short moment of voyeurism was providing her with enough fantasy material for a year of lonely nights. 

It took Hermione almost twenty minutes to calm down enough to return to the room with Severus’s potions.

This trip proved, thankfully, uneventful. Lucius had fallen asleep or was pretending to have done, his face relaxed and the blankets pulled up under his chin. Severus, however, was wide awake and ready for redosing. She didn’t bother with much of an exam. Just a few quick wand waves and a quick check of the affected hand before measuring out his pain relief and another blood replenisher just in case. It would have been impossible to do more without disturbing his bedmate and neither Hermione nor Severus seemed to be in the mood to deal with the man’s antics. 

Upon returning to bed, Hermione found the rush of thoughts she’d pushed down before returning to leave her body warm and aching in the worst way. She didn’t bother to slip her hands beneath her gown and relieve the tension. If she was going to sleep fitfully she’d rather it be because she couldn’t get thoughts of the two men touching her out of her head than the haze of remembered trauma that had woken her. Her last thought as she fell asleep was simply that if they’d thought her hands were talented now she would love to show them both just how right they were. 

**SEVERUS**

In the morning Severus woke to the distinctly strange experience of feeling like half of his body was a mass of pins and needles. The same sensation had woken him in the night, but between the mitigating properties of the pain relief potions and the distraction of Lucius rutting against him like a randy schoolboy he had mostly been able to ignore it until Miss Granger returned with his next doses of potion and he could slip back to blissful oblivion. 

In the soft morning light, with Lucius already up and scrounging through the kitchen to come up with a suitable breakfast, Severus couldn’t ignore the unusual sensation. At least all his limbs seemed mobile, if still half numb and heavy. He was able to make a careful trip to the toilet with the aid of his cane before his lover returned with food. 

Lucius returned with buttered toast and coffee, the only things Severus ate most mornings, and a warning that he should eat quickly because Miss Granger had opened the door to accept her toast already in her uniform and was nearly ready to attend him. Severus was popping the last bite of his toast into his mouth to chew carefully when she bustled in. 

“You have an appetite!” She said warmly, setting down her bag and pushing up her sleeves. Hermione waved at Lucius where he was sitting in his favorite chair, the  _ Daily Prophet _ spread in his lap, coffee in hand.“That is the best possible sign I could ask for! It means you have mobility and deep nerve function even before poking at them with magic. Are you feeling all tingly?” 

“Yes,” Severus answered once he managed to swallow down his last bite. “And heavy on that side, like when I’ve slept badly on my arm except it’s half my body and it’s lingering.”

“Laying on hands will sort that. If you were a muggle you might feel completely normal right now, but your magic needs bonding. Our bodies use magic for just about everything and it runs through the neural pathways.” She cast a few diagnostics that lit up the air while she charmed her hands sterile. “Would you like a few minutes to digest or do anything else before we get started or shall we go ahead?” 

“Let’s get on with it, Doctor Granger,” he replied gruffly, settling the last sips of his already cold coffee onto the side table. 

“Alright then!” Hermione moved the pillows out of the way so the bed was a large flat surface before continuing. “Turn over onto your front for me. I’ll start with the back and move to your front. This won’t hurt at all, in case you were wondering. I imagine it's very much like what Narcissa did for you before. Laying on hands is natural magic and it’s what most untrained healers are doing without realizing it. ”

Severus rolled onto his front, keeping the blanket pulled firmly around him to give him some sort of privacy as long as he could have it and resting his forehead on his crossed arms. 

“I’m going to touch you now, Severus. Starting at your scalp.” She began without further preamble. 

Her fingers threading through his hair blazed with warmth. She dug them into the thin skin at the back of his skull and just behind his ear, working them in small slow circles down to the knotted tension in his neck. It felt wonderful. The magic sunk in with familiar weight, something inside him rising up to meet it and leaving every place she’d touched feeling whole and healthy for the first time in longer than he could remember. The relief was more than magical. It was skill. Her hands worked against his hands with expertise, smoothing away tension he hadn’t even known he was holding. 

“You might notice my hands are very warm on your skin,” she explained as she worked, "Sorry if it's uncomfortable, I think it's probably better than them being too cold though." 

Severus didn't mind the warmth in the slightest but he hadn't cared about her chilled fingertips the day before either. It was taking all his concentration not to let out a moan as her hands made their way down his back, easing out his muscles and pushing warmth deep into his body. By the time she reached the small of his back he was too relaxed to even protest when she pulled the blanket to the side to dig her fingers into his arse. She pushed deep into the flesh there until he thought she might be trying to force her way into his hip bone. It hurt enough to make him hiss but she moved on quickly to his thigh with the same firm touches. Her thumbs rubbing distractingly forceful circles as she dragged her hands downwards, almost grazing the sensitive skin of his testicles as her fingers dug into his inner thigh. 

“Roll over for me, Severus,” Hermione said after a while of working her hands over the arches of his feet and between each of his toes. “I’ll do your arm and hand, and then we can go from the top down again on your front. I don’t want you to worry or stress about when I will reach your genitals. I know it is going to feel like a violation of privacy, so I am telling you now I will deal with them separately at the end. Please try not to tense up on me.” 

Lucius’ eyes caught his as soon as he rolled over. There was a fire behind his lover’s eyes that Severus hadn’t seen much recently. It wasn’t that Lucius had lost his passion, far from it, but there was always worry or fear cooling his desires. He clearly had nothing else on his mind now as Hermione bent over Severus and worked the magic back into the flesh of his arm, delicately enfolding each of his long fingers in her hands and chaffing them until all the numbness left them. Lucius scooted to the end of his chair, the prophet now crumpled and forgotten, eyes heavy lidded and dark. 

“Top to bottom again, Severus,” Hermione said quietly, breaking his gaze away from Lucius’s as her fingertips gently rubbed over his temple and brow. “ Close your eyes, I promise I won’t blind you.” 

The rough pads of two fingers barely touched the thin skin of his eyelid, trembling and light as a landing butterfly as the brushed past his lashes and onto his cheek. 

Severus didn’t open his eyes again as she worked over his scarred jaw and neck, the worst of the bite mark remaining vaguely numb as she moved on. He wasn’t bitter, she hadn’t promised him perfection. He just wanted to focus on the warm bliss of her tracing the lightning burst scars on his chest and pressing insistently against his ribcage. Her hands slid lower, rubbing firmly into his abdomen, just soft enough to draw a shiver from him as they tickled across his lower belly. 

When Hermione reached his leg, Severus let his eyes flutter open, interested to watch her working once again. Lucius had been right, her hands were graceful. She was practiced at her work and it showed. The confidence that had irritated him when she was his student was incredibly compelling in her as an adult. There wasn’t an ounce of naivete about her. So when Severus noticed a blush creeping over her face as she moved down his leg, her fingers dangerously close to where he’d tried to use the heavy blanket to give himself some semblance of dignity he didn’t for one minute believe it was from embarrassment. She was breathing shallowly and he could feel the hummingbird quick beat of her heart in the magic she sent thrumming through him. Hermione had noticed his erection twitching as her hands neared it and it had excited her. Touching him was arousing her as much as it was arousing him. 

Severus let his eyes drift up to meet Lucius’ as she neared his ankle, knowing he had only a moment to answer the heady question in his lover’s gaze. 

He nodded. 

**LUCIUS **

Waiting for Hermione to finish her work was torture. 

Lucius had shifted forward in his seat as soon as her attention was focused onto Severus, having tried to appear nonchalant when she arrived so as not to make her any more flustered than she had been when she’d opened the guestroom door to accept breakfast.

He wanted to fuck the Healer, not prevent her from doing her job, but it was hard to stick to that principle when she was bent over so prettily and putting her hands all over Severus. Still Lucius waited, not hiding his intentions from Severus in the slightest when his lover rolled over and their eyes met. 

When her hands trailed over Severus’s stomach, ruffling the soft hair there, Lucius saw the telltale shudder and the subtle movement deep within the blankets that told him the other man was not so unaffected as he’d proclaimed to be the night before. 

His lover’s eyes were dark with desire and trained on Hermione, his stoic face revealing nothing more as her hands trailed down his leg. Just as Lucius was sure that he would be forced to try for this seduction on his own time Severus’s eyes whipped up to meet his once again and he gave an almost imperceptible nod. 

Lucius stood and moved across the room quietly to stand behind Hermione, not so close that she might accidentally bump into him as she moved, but close enough to see the flush disappearing into the high neck of her Healer’s garb and the way she was worrying her bottom lip between her teeth as she finished up with Severus’s leg. 

“ Alright, almost done.” Her voice was crisp and professional, if breathier than the bright cheery tones she’d started with that morning. “ I know this bit will be awkward but I have to lay hands on your genitals. It can’t be avoided since the nerve removal isn’t entirely precise.” 

“Understood, Doctor Granger.” Severus replied, his deep voice a rumbling betrayal of his arousal. 

“I promise to keep this as brief as possible,” she continued quietly, tucking the blankets to the side and setting straight to work as Severus’s cock was revealed, massaging small circles inwards towards his center. 

This was the moment, Lucius decided. He could wait—and hope that the moment wouldn’t pass once her hands had left Severus’s body—but he wasn’t willing to risk it. He wanted her just like this, bent over and in that delightfully proper outfit and her hands doing delightfully improper things to his lover. He came in close to Hermione, so close that his thighs brushed the full skirt of her Healer’s robes. 

“Look at what a wonderful job you’ve done,” he purred, watching his breath ruffle the flyaway curls at the back of her neck and enjoying her sharp little intake of breath. “I’ve been watching you work; you’re an excellent healer, Hermione. Your hands give you away. Each movement is so practiced. I truly believe that you are the only healer who could have helped dear Severus. I would love to give you a very personal thank you, but only if you can stay focused. I believe you can, you didn’t even jump when you felt my breath on your neck. Can you stay focused, Hermione?” 

She didn’t answer immediately, her fingertips still making small circles pressed into the hollow where Severus’s thigh met his groin. Lucius didn’t worry. The way her back had arched gently as he spoke told him he hadn’t judged her wrongly. 

“Severus?” she breathed, eyes lowered to where her hands were working. 

“I have every confidence in your skills, Doctor Granger.” Severus’ hips twitched slightly against her as he obviously tried to restrain himself from jerking up into her touches. 

“Far be it for me to prevent you from thanking me, Lucius.” She replied as soon as she had Severus’s answer, only the tiniest tremble in her voice betraying her anticipation. 

“Just focus on Severus, Hermione,” Lucius whispered, silently flicking his wand to extend the edge of the bed and gesturing to Severus that he should take advantage of the space. “ All you have to say the word and I will stop.” 

Severus repositioned himself on the bed so that his legs were slightly bent and on either side of Hermione while Lucius knelt behind her so his face was level with her arse. 

He dragged the hem of her conservative uniform up and folded it into her apron strings, revealing what she’d hidden underneath. None of it was particularly alluring in any traditional sense. Practical black loafers over white ankle socks on her feet, comfortable looking knickers covering her bum, plain white and practical as her socks. To Lucius it was perfect, exactly what he’d imagined. When he placed a hand on the small of her back, pushing her so that she was leaned over the bed, Lucius could see the delicate outline of her cunt through the soaked white cotton. 

Lucius couldn’t see her hands working from his current vantage point, but he could imagine it vividly from the tiny familiar sounds coming from his lover’s mouth. One hand would be stroking firmly over Severus’s cock, the other gently cradling his balls. Lucius traced his hands up Hermione’s thighs, enjoying the slight quiver under his hands and the deep groan as her hand flexed over Severus, grip tightening as the healer’s focus momentarily wavered. 

“Tell me if it’s too much press-sure...,” Her breath hitched as Lucius slipped his hands into the waistband of her knickers, slowly sliding them down her legs and off one loafered foot, nudging it so that her legs were slightly spread. 

“You won’t break him, Hermione,.” Lucius whispered, his breath fanning across the slick folds of flesh peeking out from her slit. “My hands aren’t nearly so graceful and delicate as yours.” 

Spreading her open with his thumbs, Lucius was firm as he’d promised, licking her in a single sweep from her clit to her passage. Her cunt was salty and vaguely sweet, dripping wet and deliciously sensitive. 

He traced the petal soft folds with his tongue and heard Severus release the telltale grunt that said her twitching fingers had tugged his balls away from his body. Lapping at her clit with slow, broad passes of his tongue, she broke her self control and a quiet, almost pained, moan broke through her professional silence. Lucius could hear the fast, slick sounds of flesh over flesh that told him one of them had seen fit to cast a lubrication charm over Severus’s cock. He kept up the slow, deliberate motion of his tongue on Hermione’s clit and slipped one finger, then another into the warm vice of her cunt, drawing another cry from her and a moan from Severus as her fingers clenched around him. He pressed his fingers forward into her tight, wet heat and found that ridge of tissue, rubbing insistently against it as he heard Severus’s breath speed, trying to have them crash over the edge together. 

“ S-Severus,” Hermione said breathily as Lucius felt her walls clench once weakly around his fingers, not a climax but a warning. “I’ve got one more thing on my checklist.”

Severus hissed and Lucius knew she had slipped one of those slim fingers into his arse, probably finding his prostate in a single movement with the expertise that could only come from having done dozens such physical exams over her career. Lucius curled his fingers tighter within her and quickened his lapping tongue, pushing her to match Severus’s panting breath. He didn’t have to wait long. Hermione came apart in one quivering, mewling burst of pleasure, her cunt clamping down on his fingers so hard he was sure she might break one off. Severus in a stuttering moan. 

Lucius eased away from her gently, plucking his wand from his sleeve and cleaning them both with a charm and untucking her uniform to lay it back over her pretty, round behind after one last lingering look.

Standing up he found Hermione already coming back to herself, lifting her face from the soft plain of Severus’s thigh. Lucius’s lover was nearly asleep, stomach splattered with come and face more relaxed than Lucius had seen it in years. Hermione righted herself and promptly cast a series of cleaning and diagnostic charms on Severus, having returned to her previous imminently professional state. 

“ He will need—” 

“Rest and plenty of fluids?” Lucius interrupted her aftercare speech, knowing the typical spiel well. “You’ve done the hard part, Hermione. I’m sure I can manage to keep him happy until you come for the follow up.”

“I’m sure you can. Lucius . . .” Her sentence trailed off as her heavy lidded gaze dropped to the bulge of his cock straining against the seam of his trousers. “I’m sorry. I’m spent. All that magic and I didn’t sleep well.” 

“Don’t worry about me for a moment.” Lucius assured her, taking her hand in his and leaning to press a chaste kiss to the back of it. “As I said, consider that a personal thank you. Though if you see fit to indulge me again I wouldn’t dream of stopping you. Perhaps at that follow up.”

Lucius could almost see Hermione reviewing her calendar mentally, trying to move things around so she could return as soon as possible. 

“Yes.” She replied after a moment, a shy smile lifting the edges of her lips. “At the follow up.” 

  
  
  
  



End file.
